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Man this sounds like a certain Prickly Boardite
Read more: http://www.jamaicans.com/articles/pr...#ixzz23JUvKIQm
<span style="font-weight: bold">Race and Class Interaction in Jamaica - And its Impact on the World
</span>
In all my years in Jamaica, I never once was asked to identify my “race.”
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Click to reveal.. <input type="button" class="form-button" value="Show me!" onclick="toggle_spoiler(this, 'Yikes, my eyes!', 'Show me!')" /></div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div style="display: none;">I guess he never participated in a census.</div></div></div>
So I find it discomfiting to respond to the questions I frequently get here in America - when I have to fill out some government document, for example.
It seems absurd to describe myself as Caucasian or African-American or Hispanic or Pacific Islander… or whatever.
The bottom line is that I am a Jamaican – an unhyphenated Jamaican.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Click to reveal.. <input type="button" class="form-button" value="Show me!" onclick="toggle_spoiler(this, 'Yikes, my eyes!', 'Show me!')" /></div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div style="display: none;">Really? Not according to the Jamaican census you aren't.</div></div></div>
East Indian maidens with t<span style="font-weight: bold">heir flowing black hair resting </span>on the shoulders of Syrian or Lebanese youths, <span style="font-weight: bold">ivory-skinned Chinese girls flirting with Jewish boys</span>… Nobody is aware of being at a “multiracial” event. They’re just a bunch of Jamaicans getting together to have a good time.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">interesting in this description of a multi-racial paradise there is NO mention of Black women...only Black guys with women of other races.</div></div>
When my extended family gathers, you see every skin, hair and eye color under the sun. And the last thing we think about is what “race” we belong to.
We are Jamaicans, that’s all.
As foreigners visit Jamaica and experience the relaxed atmosphere of a color-blind culture, I expect many of them will return to their own countries with a new appreciation of racial harmony.
And as more and more Jamaicans – often the best educated – migrate to other countries, their refusal to acknowledge such nonsense as “white supremacy” or accept such abuses as ethnic segregation cannot fail to inspire change in their new environments.
Jamaicans simply will not put up with such outlandish and oppressive ideas and practices. We mix, mingle and marry as we like without regard to race or skin color. And our example could be a catalyst for worldwide enlightenment - like the child in the fable who cried, “The Emperor has no clothes on
And there is a lingering “shade prejudice” inherited from slavery. Slave owners often had sex with slaves and produced offspring. Sometimes the slave owners would marry the mothers of these children, sometimes not. But, in either case, the slave owners would often protect these children from being sold into slavery by having them declared legally “white.” They lived in the Great House with their father and enjoyed privileges denied other children of slaves.
I think it may have been this tradition of privilege that gave lighter-skinned Jamaicans a special status – an advantage that still persists to some extent, although it has faded a lot over the years.
Complicating the picture, expatriate communities have created tiny, isolated cultural pockets outside of the Jamaican mainstream experience. And tourist resorts sometimes pander to prejudices alien to Jamaicans. What I am trying to examine is the indigenous culture that developed in the Jamaican heartland over the centuries.
I cannot claim that Jamaican culture is perfect. We live in an imperfect world, after all.
Undoubtedly Jamaica’s class system is unfair. Without question, people born into Jamaica’s underclass have to struggle much, much harder to achieve economic and social success than the lucky few who are born to privileged parents. Sadly, many decent, respectable people find themselves mired in poverty and subjected to indignity. And usually, these “sufferers” belong to the predominantly black underclass.
But social injustice is not unique to Jamaica. These words from Grey’s “Elegy in a Country Churchyard” come to mind: “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its fragrance on the desert air.” That country churchyard was located not in Jamaica but in England.
Where Jamaicans may be unique is that we are far less obsessed with skin color and ethnic origin than any other multiracial society I can think of. Jamaicans can honestly boast of being (as the national motto proclaims) “out of many, one people.
Read more: http://www.jamaicans.com/articles/pr...#ixzz23JUvKIQm
Read more: http://www.jamaicans.com/articles/pr...#ixzz23JUvKIQm
<span style="font-weight: bold">Race and Class Interaction in Jamaica - And its Impact on the World
</span>
In all my years in Jamaica, I never once was asked to identify my “race.”
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Click to reveal.. <input type="button" class="form-button" value="Show me!" onclick="toggle_spoiler(this, 'Yikes, my eyes!', 'Show me!')" /></div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div style="display: none;">I guess he never participated in a census.</div></div></div>
So I find it discomfiting to respond to the questions I frequently get here in America - when I have to fill out some government document, for example.
It seems absurd to describe myself as Caucasian or African-American or Hispanic or Pacific Islander… or whatever.
The bottom line is that I am a Jamaican – an unhyphenated Jamaican.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Click to reveal.. <input type="button" class="form-button" value="Show me!" onclick="toggle_spoiler(this, 'Yikes, my eyes!', 'Show me!')" /></div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div style="display: none;">Really? Not according to the Jamaican census you aren't.</div></div></div>
East Indian maidens with t<span style="font-weight: bold">heir flowing black hair resting </span>on the shoulders of Syrian or Lebanese youths, <span style="font-weight: bold">ivory-skinned Chinese girls flirting with Jewish boys</span>… Nobody is aware of being at a “multiracial” event. They’re just a bunch of Jamaicans getting together to have a good time.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">interesting in this description of a multi-racial paradise there is NO mention of Black women...only Black guys with women of other races.</div></div>
When my extended family gathers, you see every skin, hair and eye color under the sun. And the last thing we think about is what “race” we belong to.
We are Jamaicans, that’s all.
As foreigners visit Jamaica and experience the relaxed atmosphere of a color-blind culture, I expect many of them will return to their own countries with a new appreciation of racial harmony.
And as more and more Jamaicans – often the best educated – migrate to other countries, their refusal to acknowledge such nonsense as “white supremacy” or accept such abuses as ethnic segregation cannot fail to inspire change in their new environments.
Jamaicans simply will not put up with such outlandish and oppressive ideas and practices. We mix, mingle and marry as we like without regard to race or skin color. And our example could be a catalyst for worldwide enlightenment - like the child in the fable who cried, “The Emperor has no clothes on
And there is a lingering “shade prejudice” inherited from slavery. Slave owners often had sex with slaves and produced offspring. Sometimes the slave owners would marry the mothers of these children, sometimes not. But, in either case, the slave owners would often protect these children from being sold into slavery by having them declared legally “white.” They lived in the Great House with their father and enjoyed privileges denied other children of slaves.
I think it may have been this tradition of privilege that gave lighter-skinned Jamaicans a special status – an advantage that still persists to some extent, although it has faded a lot over the years.
Complicating the picture, expatriate communities have created tiny, isolated cultural pockets outside of the Jamaican mainstream experience. And tourist resorts sometimes pander to prejudices alien to Jamaicans. What I am trying to examine is the indigenous culture that developed in the Jamaican heartland over the centuries.
I cannot claim that Jamaican culture is perfect. We live in an imperfect world, after all.
Undoubtedly Jamaica’s class system is unfair. Without question, people born into Jamaica’s underclass have to struggle much, much harder to achieve economic and social success than the lucky few who are born to privileged parents. Sadly, many decent, respectable people find themselves mired in poverty and subjected to indignity. And usually, these “sufferers” belong to the predominantly black underclass.
But social injustice is not unique to Jamaica. These words from Grey’s “Elegy in a Country Churchyard” come to mind: “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its fragrance on the desert air.” That country churchyard was located not in Jamaica but in England.
Where Jamaicans may be unique is that we are far less obsessed with skin color and ethnic origin than any other multiracial society I can think of. Jamaicans can honestly boast of being (as the national motto proclaims) “out of many, one people.
Read more: http://www.jamaicans.com/articles/pr...#ixzz23JUvKIQm
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